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| The Pauly Jail was erected in 1897 in Union Springs, Alabama and is among the oldest surviving jails in Alabama. |
The old Pauly jail, in Union Springs, Alabama, shares some
haunting history along with the rest of the town. It was built in 1897 by the
Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company and is arguably the oldest
standing jail in the state. It was used as a film set in 2004 for the movie,
Heaven’s Fall (which is still set-up inside the building). The 116 year-old
jail has been renovated by the historic society and is dedicated to the prohibition
era of Bullock County and it’s legacies in moonshine. Several liquor stills
are on display at the museum along with other artifacts, relics, photos and newspaper
articles that pertain to illegal distilling.
The three story jail consists of jailers and deputies quarters,
a woman’s wing, and interrogation room on the bottom floor. The second floor
general population cells are tight quarters and a separate recreation area,
known as the “bull pen”, for deputies, is located in the back. The third floor
cells are surrounded by twenty foot catwalks where jailers would keep a close watch
over inmates and a separate cell for the insane or suicidal. Perhaps the most
curious attraction at the jail is the swinging trap door and eyelet, which is
also located on the third floor. The reason it’s located there is because
hangings were conducted in the jail in plain sight of inmates. When the sliding
sound of a heavy switch and clanking metal doors erupted from the Pauly Jail,
it meant only one thing, someone met their fate at the end of a long drop and a
short stop.
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| Death by hanging for condemned prisoners in the 1900's was carried out in plain view of inmates at the jail. |
One of the Pauly Jail’s first criminal visitors was Willie Upshaw.
He was arrested and sent to jail the same year it opened. He managed to escape
the beast of concrete and steel but was later killed. The man who killed Willie
(whose name is presently unknown) was arrested for murder and also sent to the
Pauly for an undisclosed amount of time. In his confinement he hung himself in
his cell upstairs. His spirit is responsible for the heavy swinging sound heard
in the jail. On occasion, an eye witness account surfaces from those who have seen
his ghastly apparition, wandering about the third floor with a noose around his
neck.
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| The Pauly Jail is now a renovated museum dedicated to prohibition era and moonshine, but those aren't the only "spirits" here. |
On Christmas Eve, 1960, J.W. Mann was arrested for disorderly
conduct and taken to the Pauly Jail. He was smoking in his cell and apparently fell
asleep and set his mattress on fire. Before the jailer could be found to open
the jail, flames completely engulfed J.W.’s cell and smoke was bellowing out of
the second floor window. By the time they reached Mr. Mann, he was already
dead. Since then, the spirit of J.W. Mann has spent more than a few Christmas’s
haunting the old city jail. The Pauly Jail has been a hotbed of ghostly
inhabitants and paranormal activity for the past decade. Its history tells the
story of how the spirits came to be. Recently, a video was recorded at the jail
of a “ghost box” session during an investigation by the Alabama Paranormal
Research Team. In the video, voices came over the radio device saying, “Pauly”
and “moonshine”. According to the investigators, more spirits at the jail are
still undocumented.
- “We are just now scratching the surface of the mystery of
the Pauly Jail spirits”.
